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GBA Inspire Speakers Series

Green Building Alliance and Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens are hosting an all-star line-up of motivational local and national guest speakers who will plant the seeds of inspiration to create healthy and high-performing places where we live, work, learn, and play.

January Speakers:

Known as the “father of place-based education,” David Sobel will enlighten January’s Inspire Speakers Series’ audience about educational biodiversity. This well-known author and consultant will explain how place-based education is a response to the alienation of schools from community and the decoupling of schools from historic sites, local landscapes, and farms. David will describe his approach to place-based education and how it should mimic the format of a farmer’s market: drawing on the resources and diversity of the local community.

Local Speaker: Jane Werner

How does this topic relate to Western Pennsylvania? Jane Werner, executive director of the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, will help make the local connection. The award-winning, LEED-certified museum delights and inspires children through “real stuff” experiences for play and learning. Named one of the nation’s top ten children’s museums by Parents Magazine in 2011, it offers a great regional example of where kids can find “place-based learning” in their own backyard.